Beuckels Emma, De Jans Steffi
Ghent University, Communication Sciences, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Ghent University, Communication Sciences, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Appetite. 2022 Nov 1;178:106269. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106269. Epub 2022 Aug 10.
Childhood obesity is a worldwide health problem with a range of short- and long-term health and social consequences; however, the World Health Organization (WHO) argues that this epidemic is preventable and reversible. The biggest dietary gatekeepers of children are their parents and more specifically mothers, whose attitudes and consumption choices are nowadays often affected by the opinions of influencers on social network sites (SNSs). Using two experimental studies, the current paper investigates how mothers' food assessments and decisions for their children are affected by sponsored posts on social media. The first study adopted a two-level between-subjects experiment (N = 81), which showed that mothers like sponsored Instagram posts better when they are posted by a mom influencer (i.e. a mother who accumulated a large following on social media and often engages in sponsored partnerships with brands) compared to a brand. This consequently positively affected source credibility, post engagement, purchase intention and the child appropriateness of the food. In the second experiment, a two-by-two between-subjects design (N = 169) showed that while a typical mom influencer is perceived as less effective in promoting food compared to an expert (i.e. a pediatric nutritionist) mom influencer due to lower credibility, a typical mom influencer is more efficient in promoting unhealthy foods through higher influencer-brand congruence.
儿童肥胖是一个全球性的健康问题，会产生一系列短期和长期的健康及社会后果；然而，世界卫生组织（WHO）认为这种流行趋势是可预防且可逆转的。儿童饮食的最大把关人是他们的父母，更具体地说是母亲，如今母亲的态度和消费选择往往会受到社交网站（SNS）上有影响力的人的意见的影响。本文通过两项实验研究，探讨了母亲对孩子的食物评估和决策如何受到社交媒体上赞助帖子的影响。第一项研究采用了两水平组间实验（N = 81），结果表明，与品牌发布的赞助Instagram帖子相比，母亲们更喜欢由妈妈有影响力的人（即在社交媒体上积累了大量粉丝且经常与品牌进行赞助合作的母亲）发布的帖子。这进而对信息源可信度、帖子参与度、购买意愿以及食物对孩子的适宜性产生了积极影响。在第二项实验中，一个2×2组间设计（N = 169）表明，虽然由于可信度较低，典型的妈妈有影响力的人在推广食物方面被认为比专家（即儿科营养师）妈妈有影响力的人效果更差，但典型的妈妈有影响力的人通过更高的有影响力的人与品牌的一致性，在推广不健康食品方面更有效率。
